Sunday, December 16, 2012

Tigers Run Participation Leaders Since 1950

Following up on my previous post on run participation for all major league players since 1950, I will look at the Tigers today. As a reminder, a player can participate in his teams' runs in three ways:

Runs Scored (RS)

Runs Batted In (RBI)

Runs Assisted (RAS)

A Run Assisted is any contribution to a team run that does not result in a run scored or RBI for the batter. The ways a player can get a Run Assisted (RAS) are described below:

A
batter advances a runner to either second or third with a
hit, base on balls, hit batsmen, error, sacrifice bunt, or another
kind of out. If that
runner then scores either during the same at bat or an ensuing at bat, the batter who advanced him is given a Run Assisted.

A batter reaches base and is removed
for a pinch runner or is replaced by another runner on a force out.
If the new runner then scores, the batter who originally reached base is given a
Run Assisted.

A player gets credit for a Run Participated In (RPI) if he either
scores, drives in or assists a run. There is no double counting for
home runs so the formula is RPI = RS + RBI + RAS - HRTable 1 presents the Tigers RPI leaders since 1950, the first complete year of Retrosheet data (required in order to calculated RAS). Hall-of-Fame outfielder Al Kaline is the leader with 3,777 RPI followed by the dynamic duo of Lou Whitaker (2,998) and Alan Trammell (2,853). Current slugger Miguel Cabrera figures to move up the list quickly. He is currently 19th with 1,181, but if he keep up the same pace, he'll move into the top five in just three more years.

Table 1: Tigers Run Participation Leaders, 1950-2012

Player

PA

RS

RBI

RAS

HR

RPI

Al
Kaline

11,596

1,622

1,582

972

399

3,777

Lou
Whitaker

9,967

1,386

1,084

772

244

2,998

Alan
Trammell

9,375

1,231

1,003

804

185

2,853

Norm
Cash

7,775

1,027

1,088

604

373

2,346

Dick
McAuliffe

6,828

856

671

397

192

1,732

Willie
Horton

5,973

671

886

384

262

1,679

Bobby
Higginson

5,663

736

709

419

187

1,677

Bill
Freehan

6,900

706

758

409

200

1,673

Kirk
Gibson

4,773

698

668

391

195

1,562

Travis
Fryman

4,792

607

679

372

149

1,509

Cecil
Fielder

4,252

558

758

329

245

1,400

Mickey
Stanley

5,478

641

500

343

117

1,367

Lance
Parrish

4,674

577

700

279

212

1,344

Harvey
Kuenn

4,737

619

423

349

53

1,338

Jim
Northrup

4,926

571

570

334

145

1,330

Brandon
Inge

5,196

527

589

325

140

1,301

Chet
Lemon

4,676

570

536

308

142

1,272

Magglio
Ordonez

3,531

452

533

331

107

1,209

Miguel Cabrera

3,401

512

600

252

183

1,181

Carlos
Guillen

3,384

469

449

320

95

1,143

Runs Participated In is a counting statistic which is influenced greatly
by length of career, so it's good to also have a rate measure. One such metric is Runs Participated In Percentage (RPI%) which is the
percentage of a teams' total runs in which a player participated. For
example, Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera participated in 253 runs out of
726 total runs for the Tigers in 2012, so he had a 34.8% RPI%. The RPI% statistic might tell us how much a team relied on a player to
score runs. As such, some fans might find it useful in MVP voting. The
limitation of course is that a player may benefit from having less
productive teammates surrounding him in the order.

Over the course of a career, you can average a player's annual RPI%'s to arrive at a career RPI%. The RPI% leaders since 1950 among Tigers with at least 2,000 PA are listed in Table 2 below. Cabrera is the leader averaging 30.9% in his five years in Detroit. He is followed by outfielders Rocky Colavito (28.9) and Steve Kemp (28.2).

Table 2: Tigers Run Participation Percentage Leaders, 1950-2012

Player

PA

RPI

RPI%

Miguel
Cabrera

3,401

1,181

30.9

Rocky
Colavito

2,723

856

28.9

Steve
Kemp

2,930

969

28.2

Rusty
Staub

2,407

758

27.5

Tony
Phillips

3,320

1,023

26.2

Cecil
Fielder

4,252

1,400

26.2

Al
Kaline

11,596

3,777

24.8

Travis
Fryman

4,792

1,509

24.6

Harvey
Kuenn

4,737

1,338

24.3

Ron
LeFlore

3,559

954

23.5

Norm
Cash

7,775

2,346

22.5

Ray
Boone

2,854

925

22.4

Bill
Bruton

2,228

677

22.4

Mickey
Tettleton

2,343

685

21.6

Magglio
Ordonez

3,531

1,209

21.4

Frank
Bolling

3,265

841

21.3

Lou
Whitaker

9,967

2,998

21.2

Placido
Polanco

2,819

851

21.1

Bobby Higginson

5,663

1,677

21.0

Darrell
Evans

2,809

820

20.7

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is
copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet
at Retrosheet.org.